Doesn't it feel good to be in a room filled with
Democrats, filled
with people who care about other people and not just themselves?

Like you, I'm sorry Steve Barnes couldn’t be here
today. Given his
position in the legitimate media, he would have given us a genuinely
"fair and balanced" view of the current political scene. I'll try
to
be fair, but I won’t exactly be balanced.

When Ann Richards came to California, years ago, to
support Loretta
Sanchez in her first run for Congress, Ann said something I should
repeat now. She said: "I'm advised there are a few Republicans in this
crowd, so if I hit a few tender spots, you all are just going to have
to deal with it." I should give the same warning today.

Like you, I try to be a responsible citizen and and
a responsible
voter, so I make it my business to vote--regardless of race, creed,
color, or gender--for the most qualified Democrat running. It
wasn't
always like this for me, however.

I grew up in Vermont (to the extent that I can be
said to have
grown up) at a time when the Green Mountain state was solidly
Republican. As a child, I remember hearing about the small town
with
only one Democrat. After every election, the selectmen would
gather to
sort and count the ballots. The sorting would go something like this:
Republican, Republican...Democrat. At that point, they would all smile,
start a new pile, and murmur, "Charlie." and the sorting would
continue: Republican, Republican, Republican... Then, one election,
something shocking happened.

The sorting of ballots started normal enough:
Republican,
Republican... Democrat ("Charlie"), Republican, Republican,
Republican...Democrat. The
selectmen were all stopped in their tracks
when the second Democratic ballot showed up. After a pause for
reflection, the head selectman picked up the two ballots and began
tearing them up, sputtering, "Son of a bitch voted twice."

That was the Vermont I grew up in. My grandfather
was solidly
Republican. As much as I loved him, however, I was delighted at my
college graduation to point to our graduation speaker and say, “He’s
going to be the next president of the United States, Gramps.” He
just
muttered something I didn't understand. I was honored to cast my
first
vote for John F. Kennedy.

Well, as you know Vermont has changed a lot. I first
met Howard
Dean when he was governor and again when he was getting ready to run
for president.

Patrick Leahy is an institution. In 1998, he was
re-elected with
78% of the vote, probably helped by the endorsement of his Republican
opponent, Fred Tuttle. In 2004, the Republicans picked a candidate who
pledged not to endorse his opponent, and Leahy only got 72% of the vote.

Bernie Sanders was the socialist mayor of Burlington
before
becoming an independent Congressman and now an Independent Senator.

Most of my political socialization took place in
Hawaii, however,
where I lived and taught for 12 years. What I appreciated most
was the
openness of the system. People could participate and could make a
difference. Despite initially feeling that Hawaiian politics
would be
inbred and hard for a newcomer to break into, I found just the opposite
to be the case.

I was able to help organize a grassroots group
to block a
development planned for one-third the size of Waikiki. On the one side
was Kaiser Industries, Aetna Insurance, and many in the political
establishment. On the other side was just some folks. The folks
prevailed.

I managed a campaign for City Council aimed at
blocking the return
of the machine candidate, who had formerly been Council Chair. While
the other candidates were running ads in the newspapers and on the
radio and TV, we were at our best putting people on the streets. On
election day, we had a line of sign-waving supporters a quarter of a
mile long on the main commute artery. We were successful in blocking
the return of the machine candidate--which is a nice way of saying we
lost. However, the winner immediately asked to meet with us and began
championing our issues.

One of my favorite memories of Hawaiian politics was
the opening
day of the legislature. There were flowers and leis everywhere,
traditional Hawaiian ceremonies and music were performed. After
the
opening session was complete, all the offices were open to the public
with food and aloha. You could break bread and mingle with people you
knew you'd fight the rest of the year, but on that one day, everything
was very civil.

I moved to California in 1980 and, strangely, I
found it difficult
to participate actively in California politics. Maybe I was doing
something wrong. All that changed, however, when I began working with
Loretta Sanchez on her first and subsequent campaigns. (I worked
to a
lesser degree with her sister, Linda. They are the only sister act in
the history of the US Congress.)

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, as you may recall,
first earned her
office by taking out "B-1 Bob" Dornan, one of the most reprehensible
members of Congress. President Bill Clinton came to Orange County to
support her. When the dust settled, "B-1 Bob" was able to resume his
former career in talk radio.

Loretta is a great lady, who voted against the war
in Iraq and has
been a continuing critic of it. She will become more familiar to you in
the years ahead. I used to think Loretta would be the first woman
president and first minority president, but one way or the other, she's
going to have to settle for being second.

Last June, I moved to the Village to ask our new
Democratic Club president to marry me -- and she said yes.

Now, I am an Arkansan.

On the one hand, Arkansas seems a lot like Vermont
so I feel good
about that. And, politically, I am finding it very much like
Hawaii.
At first, I expected things to be tightly knit and resistant to
outsiders, and I must tell you I have felt so welcomed by every
Democrat I've met that I feel like I've come home. (At least I assume
all the nice people are Democrats.)

Like my experience of Hawaiian politics, I see
clearly once again
how individuals and small groups can make a powerful difference.

Like many in this room, I lived through the Cold
War, beginning to
end, and now the new beginning, evidently. And while I get really
aroused by just about every presidential election, I truly believe this
is the most important one in my lifetime.

Seven years ago, a young man from Hope, Arkansas,
left the
leadership of a nation that was economically vital. Our social
institutions were being rebuilt after the Reagan-Bush years of
neglect. President Clinton had fought off challenges to world
peace in
ways that united coalitions of nations around the world. Americans were
widely respected as the special people I believe we are.

In seven short years, all that has been trashed. On
September 12,
2001, there were candle-lit memorial services around the world, in
virtually every country on the globe, mourning the dramatic losses
suffered by the American people the day before. President Bush quickly
put a stop to any feeling of love and support for Americans. He
blustered and blundered the world into wars that have cost hundreds of
thousands of lives. He has exhibited the same level of "integrity" that
marked his "military service" during the war in Vietnam.

At home, we are nine trillion dollars in debt, and
we can't afford
to tend to the basics of our national infrastructure. Rather we give
tax cuts to the wealthiest among us, turning a deaf ear to those most
in need. Ordinary Americans are losing their jobs, their homes, and
their dignity. Children will have to go without health care. But at
least Exxon, Halliburton, and Blackwater are well taken care of.

During the 2000 presidential debates, George Bush
chided Al Gore
for not being strong enough on the environment. Gore said he would
support the Kyoto Protocol, but Bush said that wasn't enough. He, Bush,
would go farther in the protection of Mother Earth. Once elected, of
course, he pulled America out of Kyoto and denied there was any
problem. He has treated the planet like a sewer.

It will take generations of Americans to regain the
respect our
people once had in the world community. It will take generations to
rebuild our economy. And I pray there is time left to solve the
environmental problems that have been so aggravated by this
administration.

The question is: which will be the first generation
to begin that
work? Will the restoration of America and the planet begin on January
20, 2009 -- or four years later -- or four years after that?

You can guess what will happen if the Republicans
win. John McCain
has already approved a hundred year military occupation of
Iraq--whether they agree or not--and he can't wait to "bomb, bomb, bomb
-- bomb, bomb Iran."

George Romney said yesterday that he was pulling out
of the
presidential race because electing Senator Clinton or Senator Obama
would be "a surrender to terror." I suggest to you that many, many
Americans were led to surrender to terror in the wake of 9/11. They
were kept in a state of terror for the years that followed, and they
surrendered to terror again in November 2004.

The American people began standing up to the
Bush-Cheney terror
machine in November 2006, however, and the tide is still strong in that
direction. We simply cannot afford another Bush-Cheney reign of terror
whether it is renamed McCain or Huckabee, or something else.

One day, my young grandchildren will ask me what I
did during the
2008 campaigns, and I want to tell them a proud, happy story: one in
which I made a difference and one that ended in victory.

As Fred Sanford would have said, "This is the big
one." It is
impossible to measure all that is at stake in this election. The
people in this room can transform the Village and help make Saline and
Garland Counties solidly Blue. And those Counties will shine in a
solidly Blue state and in a nation with solid Democratic majorities in
the Senate and in the House and in the other House--the big White one.